Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Swalwell’s 'Devices' in Federal Trouble & Nike’s WOKE Market Meltdown

Transcript

Swalwell’s 'Devices' in Federal Trouble & Nike’s WOKE Market Meltdown · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We continue to have a strong dollar policy. In the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: strong dollar policy is that the US economy is pulling
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: away from the rest of the world. You know, when
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I look, we have six six and a half percent
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: nominal growth, and the composition of that growth as the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: headline inflation comes down.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Everything we're seeing in terms of revenue growth that companies
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: up about twelve percent. So the underlying economy I think
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: is very strong and the only inflationary impulses that we're
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: seeing are coming from the energy which is temporary.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: Good Friday morning.
• 0:38
  Speaker 5: Nice to have you with us on the forty seven
• 0:39
  Speaker 5: Morning Update, and we've got two big stories for you.
• 0:42
  Speaker 5: First up, FBI agents confiscating Eric Squadwell's electronic devices at
• 0:48
  Speaker 5: the airport in San Francisco. What is the investigation about
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: sexual misconduct pro The man who used to go after
• 0:57
  Speaker 5: Donald Trump every day demanding accountability is now being investigated
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: and having his home search as well. I have that
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: story for you in just a moment. Also, you may
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: remember Nike decided to go woke. Well, now after five years,
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: they've lost nearly eighty percent of their market value translation,
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: go woke and go broke.
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: We have the amazing decline.
• 1:23
  Speaker 5: Before we get to that, though, I want to talk
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: to you about the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: and how you can get involved in praying for people
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: in need. Right now, Anti Semitism is continuing to rise
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: around the world. Every day, the Jewish people continue to
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: pay the price, from growing threats against Jewish communities to
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: acts of violence, harassment, and intimidation. Many Jewish families are
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: living with fear simply because they're Jewish. Synagogues and schools
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: and community centers continuing to be forced to strengthen their
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: security because hatred has spread so far beyond the headlines.
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: And that's why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: is working every day in Israel and around the world,
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: providing security, emergency assistance, food, and critical care for vulnerable
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: Jewish communities. For more than forty years, the Fellowship has
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: stood alongside the Jewish people, delivering practical support when it's
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: needed the most. Hatred continues to spread, but compassion and
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: action can make a difference. So join the International Fellowship
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: of Christians and Jews in praying for the safety of
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: the Jewish people for peace in Israel and for an
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: end anti Semitism. Together we can remind God's people that
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: they're not alone. So stand with Israel in prayer today
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: by visiting Prey IFCJ dot org. That's Prey IFCJ dot org.
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: It's the forty seven Morning Update and it starts right now.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Story number one.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: I want to tell you about Eric swaw Well.
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: You may remember he is the former congressman, disgraced guberentorial
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: candidate in California that was excommunicated by Democrats not because
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: of what he did, but because they believed he couldn't
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: win the race in California. Now, this part of the
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: story and the details are going to tell you you're going
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: to understand instantly now just how serious things have become
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: since the Democrats have taken their hands off of Eric
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: and protecting him. The former congressman, once a presidential candidate,
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: one of Donald Trump's loudest critics in Congress, and until
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: just a couple months ago, the candidate for governor of California,
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: has now had his electronic devices seized by the FBI
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: as part of a criminal investigation and allegations of sexual misconduct.
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: Here's more about the seizure. On Fox News Breaking News.
• 3:54
  Speaker 6: We have just learned that the FBI has seized former
• 3:58
  Speaker 6: Congressman Eric Swallwell's electronics and this happened on Saturday. They
• 4:03
  Speaker 6: took those electronics from him at San Francisco International Airport
• 4:07
  Speaker 6: on Saturday and then from his Washington, d C. Home
• 4:11
  Speaker 6: on Sunday. Eric Swalwell was not detained or arrested and
• 4:15
  Speaker 6: were told the federal investigation involved sexual misconduct allegations against him.
• 4:21
  Speaker 6: Two women who have spoken publicly about sex misconduct allegations against.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: Swalwell we know about.
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: The FBI is not commenting further details on this case,
• 4:31
  Speaker 6: and Fox News has contacted Swalwell's attorney. We're waiting to
• 4:35
  Speaker 6: hear back now.
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: To be clear, the agents didn't simply ask or send
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: a letter to his attorney asking him to turn over
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: his phones.
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: According to these reports, the.
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: FBI agents confronted Swalwell at the San Francisco Airport and
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: served him with a search warrant for his cell phone
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: and other electronic devices. Then ABC News went on to
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: report the agent seized the devices at the air and
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: then the investigators had another search warrant for Swalwell's Washington,
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: DC home. The San Francisco Chronicle reports the device sees
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: at the airport included his iPhone as well as his
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: MacBook computer. Now you got to think about the significance
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: of that. This isn't simply a political ethics investigation any longer.
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: This isn't an embarrassing congressional hearing. You have federal investigators
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: obtaining a search warrant allowing them to take possession of
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: the electronic devices of a former member of Congress and
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: then searches home. Now Swalwell has not been convicted of
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: a crime, but the allegations against them, while they remain,
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: clearly extremely serious. Obtaining a federal search warrant generally requires
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: investigators to convince a judge that there is probable cause
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: and it exists, and they believe evidence of a crime
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: will be found in the place or property that they
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: are searching, and the underlying allegations are extraordinarily serious. Reuters
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: this morning reporting that the federal investigation involves allegations multiple
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: allegations of sexual misconduct against Swalwell. It follows accusations from
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: multiple women that surface earlier this year, including allegations of
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: sexual assault and unsolicited explicit images. Swalwell has denied all
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: the allegations in said he intends to fight them as well. Now,
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: according to cal Matters for women initially accused Swalwell of
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: sexual misconduct, one former congressional staffer has also alled to
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: Swalwell sexually assaulted her not once but twice when she
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: was too intoxicated to consent, and solicited oral sex from
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: her while she worked for him. Swalwell has also denied
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: those allegations. Now, all of this has been about the
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: political future for Swalwell until now. You got to remember
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: where Eric Swallow was heading. He had represented California inngres
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: since twenty thirteen. He briefly ran for president in twenty nineteen.
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: He became one of the most recognizable Democratic faces during
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: the Trump years, appearing consistently on television and emerging as
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: one of Trump's fiercest congressional antagonists. Then he decided his
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: next move would be the governor's mansion in California. That's
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: when Swallow launched has campaigned for governor in November of
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: last year and entered the race as a major Democratic contender.
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: Then everything collapsed when the sexual misconduct allegations became public
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: in April, after the poll numbers showed there was a
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: chance that Eric may not be able to beat the
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: Republican candidate. That is when the Democrats started taking care
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: of one of their own. And I'm not talking about
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: protecting them, I'm talking about politically taking them out. The
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: political fallout was immediate. The media who protected him was
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: now covering the stories, and that is when Swalwell suspended
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: his campaign for governor just days after the allegations were published.
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: He continued, of course, denying them while apologizing to his
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: family for what he characterized as a quote unquote mistake
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: in judgment. And it didn't end with his campaign as
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: I'm sure he was hoping. Swallwell subsequently announced he would
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: resign from Congress, bringing an ind to the career of
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: a politician who only months earlier was positioning himself to
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: run the largest state in America. And now, just four
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: months later, this story has moved from political scandal into
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: a dramatically different arena. Sirch warrants, federal agents seized electronics
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: and a search of his Washington home. The FBI action
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: is especially significant because electronic devices can potentially contain enormous
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: amounts of evidence texts, emails, photograph location information, communications with witnesses,
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: and other digital records. Now we don't yet know specifically
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: what investigators believe they will find. Itself does not establish,
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: of course, that Swalwell is actually guilty, but investigators clearly
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: want access to these devices badly enough to seek judicial
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: authorization to literally seize them, and apparently they weren't willing
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: to wait for Swalwell to voluntarily hand them over. Now, finally,
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: there's also a broader irony here, and it's impossible to ignore.
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: For years, Eric Squalell was one of the most aggressive
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: voices in Washington, demanding countless investigations and impeachments of Donald
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: Trump and the people around him. He served on the
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: House Intelligence Committee. He became nationally famous during the Russia investigation.
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: He regularly appealed on television discussing those investigations and the
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: subpoenas and the classified information and accountability and the rule
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: of law was his thing. Well, now Swalwell is the
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: one facing the federal investigators, and this isn't even the
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: first major controversy that's followed him. You may also remember
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: that years earlier, and we covered it here. Suahwa also
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: faced intense scrutiny over his association with a Chinese communist
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: spy known as Fang Fang. That's right, Well, even more
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: information came out and admitting that he actually did have
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: a sexual relationship with a Chinese spy. That came out
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: this week as well. So there's a lot happening right now.
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: One thing is for sure. Federal investigators they are now
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: gathering evidence. The FBI has Eric Swala as electronics and
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: agents have searched his Washington home. So now we sit
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: and wait, and there's a very good chance so probably
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: quite a few weeks to come out about exactly what
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: is going to happen next.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: Now story number two, there.
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: Is a financial story right now that's unfolding that every
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: CEO in America should be paying attention to. And many
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: of us who felt like maybe we keep losing when
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: there are these woke, radical agendas that are pushed by
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: corporate America, well guess what. It may take a long
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: time to win, but winning is exactly what seems to
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: be happening as consumers start turning away from brands when
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: they go against their values. Now, one of the most
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: powerful brands in the history of America has suffered an
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: absolutely staggering destruction of shareholder value. Nike has lost roughly
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: two hundred billion in market value from its twenty twenty
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: one peak. Let me say that again, not two hundred million,
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: not twenty billion. Roughly two hundred billion in market capitalization
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: has vanished. Nike stock has fallen the levels not seen
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: in approximately twelve years, and shares are down roughly seventy
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: eight percent from their twenty twenty one all time high.
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: Now this isn't some startup that had one good year
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: and then collapse. We're talking about Nike. We're talking about
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: the Swish, We're talking about Michael Jordan, We're talking about
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: Tiger Woods, We're talking about Serena Williams, We're talking about
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: the brand.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: Just do it.
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: For decades, Nike wasn't merely selling shoes. It was selling
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: American sports culture. And today the company's market capitalization is
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: hovering around sixty billion. That is an extraordinary fall from
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: its heights that it reached US five years ago. Now,
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: not only has Nike lost nearly eighty percent of its
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: market kap over the last five years, but when the
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: stock was near its peak, it was put this way
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: by Ethan Strauss. He wrote the defensive take on how
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: the company was fumbling the bag. They were a brand,
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: they said, quote defined by Michael Jordan's competitiveness and machismo,
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: and with a heavily male customer base. They thought they
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: could double in size, that they could be that and
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: also be Lululemon at the same time. But instead they
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: stopped being that while failing to be Lululemon, and now
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: they're nothing a bunch of upstart competitors ate their lunch
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: while they destroyed their brand and reputation. Now what was
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: it that caused their brand to collapse? That is the
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: biggest part of the story here that we all need
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: to look at. And this is going to be studied,
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: I promise you in college.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: Because the decline of the.
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: Largest American sports apparel brand, well, that's big center. Ted
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: Cruz put it this way when he said, sad and
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: predictable for my whole life. I wore nearly one hundred
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: percent Nike for athletic wear. Kaepernick pissed me off. But
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: when they canceled the Betsy Ross shoe, it showed that
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: their marketing plan was America hate. I went out and
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: bought brand new shoes, shorts, t shirts. Turns out I
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: wasn't the only one. Go Woke, Go broke. Douglas Mackie
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: also putting out on X this called the Nike Top.
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: Years ago, Nike Number one made Kaepermick the face of
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: the thirty year anniversary campaign. Number two, they canceled the
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: Betsy Ross sneaker. Number three, they partnered with Dylan mulvaney.
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: Number four set goals including thirty five percent US racial
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: and ethnic minority representation in the corporate workforce and thirty
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: percent at the director level and above again for Nike internally.
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: Number five they prioritized the LGBTQ plus initiatives and broader
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: cultural signaling. Number six they terminated Kyrie Irving over the
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: vaccine mandate. Nike was swallowed by the HR and PR
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: ladies from colleges like Vasser and Oberlin. Now this is
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: why it is such a big moment to see Nike's
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: decline and the turn of events for a company that
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: only five years ago posted a share price of one
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: hundred and seventy seven dollars and fifty one cents, its
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: highest ever. He made no friends when in eighteen it
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: decided to monetize the controversy, and that is a clear
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: data point. They monetized the controversy surrounding the anthem kneeling
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: demonstrations of Colin Kaepernick. They signed him as a prominent
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: figure in Nike's marketing campaigns Now, Kaepernick also played his
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: last NFL game in twenty sixteen, and this led many
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: to suspect that Nike's decision to sign him in twenty
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: eighteen was not because he was playing anymore.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: He wasn't.
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: It was solely to monetize the anger he created among
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: those sympathetic to his cause. Now, Kaepernick defenders long insisted
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: that his anthem kneeling was not anti American. That case
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: became much harder to make in twenty nineteen when Kaepernick
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: publicly criticized Nike for its Betsy Ross shoe.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: That shoe, which was created to be marketed to customers
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: during the Fourth of July celebration that year, harken back
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: to the design of the famous Revolutionary War Arab Betsy
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: Ross flat with thirteen stars in a circle against a
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: blue backdrop. Kaepernick decided this symbol represented a time when
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: blacks were still enslaved, and then he went on a
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: tantrum demanding that it not be sold. What happened, Nike
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: caved into his demands and they pulled the shoe all together. Now,
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: the point of this story is pretty simple. It was sad,
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: it was predictable. Nike didn't just lose Cinder Cruz or
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: Ben Ferguson or anybody else. They just lost the entire
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: country that loved Nike because they alienated their core market audience.
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: And when you go anti American you may not see
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: it right away in your stock, but week after week,
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: month after month, and year after year, what has happened
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: is Americans walked away from the woke agenda of Nike,
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: and that's how they lost nearly eighty percent of their
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: market cap over the last five years. So if you're
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: thinking about buying Nike stock as I'm recording this, it's
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: a buye at just thirty nine dollars and nine cents.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: It's down seventy six point seven zero percent, or one
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: hundred and twenty eight dollars a share over the past
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: five years. So good luck Nike, and for other companies
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: that are paying attention to this, well, here's the moment
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: you should be looking at it and realizing if you
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: go woke, eventually you're gonna go broke.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: and we will see you back here tomorrow